Make Pictures out of Text

Have you ever wondered how people make pictures out of different text characters? It can look really effective when the image chosen is well represented by the text. With ASCII art, you can create amazing text images based off a photograph. If you're really feeling adventurous you can even create an entire image from scratch. It takes a lot of skill and attention to detail, but once you know what you're doing you will find out how addictive ASCII artwork can become.

Steps

Making ASCII Art in a Text Editor

  1. Open your text editor. Any text editor like Word or Pages will work to design your image. You can also choose to use a graphic design program like Photoshop to make your picture into text.
    • Simple text editors like Notepad will work too, but they will not allow you to import or paste an image so you will need to be prepared to create your image from scratch.
  2. Select your font. You will want to pick a fixed-width font, such as Courier. Fixed width fonts will make it easier to design your pictures since each letter or symbol will be the same size as the rest.[1]
  3. Decide on a picture. If you would like to reproduce an image file, you can copy the image to the file and open a text box to type letters over the shape of the image. You can also try to make an image from scratch.
    • When you are first getting started it is easiest to try some simpler pictures. Once you learn more about how to shade and shape your pictures you can move on to more complex images.
  4. Resize your image. Click on the picture, then place your cursor on one of the corners. Click and drag. The more complicated the picture is, the larger you’ll want it to be. However, if you need the ASCII image to be a particular size for something, resize it now.
  5. Type your text. Insert a text box. Adjust your settings if the text box is not transparent and displaying above your image. The text box needs to be a tiny bit larger than your image. Move the text box if necessary on top of the image by clicking and dragging the border. Then, enter your desired text and let your creativity take over.
    • There are many way to style your image using letters and symbols in various ways. You might choose to make the text cover the entire background and change the colors to form your picture, or you might simply type letters over the shape of the image itself. The possibilities are endless. How you want your image to look is entirely up to you.
    • Decide what you want to say. You may choose to make your text spell something relevant to the image you are creating. For example, if you are making a picture of the Eiffel Tower, you might decide to use the letters P-A-R-I-S or F-R-A-N-C-E to create the shape.
  6. Design your art in various shades using solid art techniques. Some letters like M and W can make an area look darker when used repeatedly. Other characters like "." take up relatively little space.
    • To form solid images, shape your design by using a combination of characters to create a silhouette.
    • Use variations of "heavy" and "light" letters to create your shapes and refine the curves.
    • Rounded letters like e and u or symbols and punctuation can help shape curved areas of the image.
  7. Shape your image using line art techniques. Line art is created by spacing letters and characters on the screen to draw just an outline of your image. The end result will be similar to solid art, but the spaces within the outline are typically left blank or other characters are added to create additional detail or characteristics. For example, you can use rounded shapes or zeroes to create eyes for your character.[1]
  8. Create images with dimensional depth. Even though your screen is flat, you can use the space to create a sense of spacial depth. You can use techniques like overlapping objects to give your art a 3D look and feel.
    • You can also use the space between multiple images and slight differences in image scale to create a sense of proximity to the screen.

Using an ASCII Art Generator

  1. Locate an ASCII art generator online. Most of the ASCII art generators are available for free online. Do a quick search of "ASCII art generator" on your search engine and a number of options will appear. Some of them will have different features than others. Try out a few and see which generator works best for your art.
  2. Load an image file. Your image will need to be compatible with the application. Most generators can use jpg or png images. Unlike making a picture on a text editor, you can only work from whatever image files you have at your disposal.
    • You may want to resize your image prior to loading it up to the generator. You can always resize it later, it may affect the quality of the image.
    • Some generators will allow you to upload an image directly from the web. Simply insert in the address where the image is located and the file should appear on the screen.
  3. Enter your text. Most generators have a text box where you can add custom text to be incorporated into the image. You can use a single word or multiple words. You can also simply select symbols to use.
  4. Adjust the settings. Depending on the generator you select, you will likely have a variety of setting options available to help fine tune your art. You can increase the size or the letters or the spacing. Some sites will let you select the number of characters on a line, which can be helpful if you are trying to create an image to fit in a specific frame on the internet. Always be conscious of your canvas size, so you don't end up with an image that is distorted when you try to post it.[2]
  5. Create your picture. Hit the button and wait for the image to generate. You may very well want to go back and make some further adjustments to the image the first couple times until you get the hang of how the settings work.

Tips

  • Make sure you save your work as a text document file in case you want to edit or print it. Saving the picture as an image file is useful for many things, but editing is only possible in a text document and printing tends to be better.
  • Try doing this with the family portrait. Print it out and then compare it to the real one.
  • While you may look at your picture and not think it’s very good, try standing back a bit. This way your eyes are focusing on the image as a whole and not distracted by the text.
  • When choosing a file type to save an image, .bmp uses the most memory but has the best quality, so it's good for prints. However, if you want to put your image on the web, it is better to choose .png, .gif or .jpg because they are compressed.

Things You'll Need

  • Microsoft Word
  • A picture
  • An image editing program (optional)
  • A keyboard

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.kidscodecs.com/create-ascii-art/
  2. ↑ http://www.glassgiant.com/ascii/
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